Techie arrested for hacking Air India frequent flyers accounts to sell tickets

A former employee of Air India and Kingfisher Airlines has been arrested by the Delhi Police for hacking Air India's frequent flyer member accounts and using them to book tickets sold to several travel agents on 17 July.

The accused, Anitesh Giri Goswami, is a 23-year-old BCA graduate from Pune. Goswami was arrested from Jaipur on Friday by the Delhi Police Cyber Cell under the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for hacking the airliner's website and fraudulently selling tickets.

The Delhi Police Cyber Cell under the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) received a complaint alleging that some persons were selling Air India tickets by redeeming of miles of genuine Flying Returns Members after hacking the Frequent Flyer members account.

In a statement, the EOW said that Rajasthan's Jodhpur was the hub of the scam and that Goswami was its mastermind. He was reportedly nabbed from a Jaipur apartment following a tip off from a local informer and data gleaned from electronic surveillance.

The IT expert, who was previously employed with Kingfisher Airlines and Air India, was well versed with the online ticket-booking system and functioning of Air India's intranet and internet-based systems, the police claimed.

He has been booked under offences of cheating, forgery and also under the Information Technology Act. The police has recovered a laptop, several mobile phones, and documents from Goswami's possession.

The accused techie had verified hundreds of dormant accounts of Frequent Flyer members by uploading fraudulently prepared KYC (know your customer) documents, and used these membership accounts and the miles or points accumulated in these accounts for booking airline tickets. He would sell them to various travel or ticketing agents based in Pune, Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai.